Paul Manning is a self-confessed night owl and occasionally has trouble sleeping. So, when a friend told him about a sleep study, he leapt at the chance to be involved.
"I was interested because a lot of the time I stay up to around 2 am. I'm always brainstorming, and I guess I've had a lot of issues trying to get to sleep. It was just an interesting study, and the cash incentive was welcome."
The research study lasted two weeks, during which time Paul had to make notes about sleep-related activities.
"I had to report around which time I went to bed, some of the behavior I had leading up to sleep and catalog food I had in the hours before going to bed. If I had to take a guess, I would say the trial was about figuring out contributing factors to poor sleep."
Advancing Science
Paul enjoyed participating in the study and the thought that he has helped advance scientific knowledge in some small way."To be honest, that is probably not the initial incentive to most people, but just knowing that I’m contributing fills me with a sense of pride that I could be helping to create new insights or helping people in a similar position. This is definitely something I thought was pretty cool."
Having experienced a scientific study close up, Paul is keen to contribute to future studies and clinical trials, although with one condition.
"I would say that if we're talking about behavioral studies, that would be kind of cool. Or maybe they're looking for people who might have family members with high blood pressure or something like that. I don't have that, but maybe I'm like a zero subject, like maybe a variable thrown into another study. I'm open to it, but I'm kind of reluctant to try new medicines. However, much respect to people that are open to that."